>> the recommendation is not to hire additional policemen. the recommendation is to focus priority on themus coney convention center and its events. the san francisco police department already does

establish priorities and strategically decide where to assign officers in any given day or week or month, and the recommendation is to recognize the priority that our convention business is and to assign increased presence. uniformed presence around the convention center is beneficial to the feeling of security of our convention attendees, visitors to the city. if it is not possible to do within 8 blocks or within 8 hours or 4 blocks from the center, maybe three blocks, four hours. the point is we need to address the concerns of our visitors of feeling insecure, walking from hotel to the center, from the convention center to the hotels, to the restaurant and increased uniformed presence would be a

significant boost to improving that particular metric. recommendation number 4. june 30, 2021 establish a task force to focus on real improvement in the conditions and streets around the convention center. the respondents are saying, well, there are working groups. as i said before we alluded to that and the report as well, great players. the city of san francisco has strong players in the convention business. not just the convention center itself but beyond. yes, admirable collaboration across them. still this is not delivering the needed results in terms of visitor feelings and reactions to attending an event in the

convention center, and the brand that we are building in the convention business around the nation and around the world. we can do better, and if we have a focused, highly focused task force with accountability for significant improvement in the number and percentage of post-event surveys showing concern about the city blight and behaviors in the streets thanks is the objective of this particular recommended task force. there you have it. perhaps not as brief as i was hoping to be. i apologize for that. thank you for your attention and consideration of the convention center and the significance that it is for san francisco. i repeat what i said earlier to stand up for the convention

center is to stand up for tax revenue and for our city resident's jobs. it is a big job creator. most of those jobs are for diversity residents. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. mills for all of your work as well as the other grand jury members on this important report. now, i would like to welcome the city administrators office and lisa from the office of economic and work force development for the responses to the report. >> thank you, chair. good morning, supervisors i and the director of convention facilities. i appreciate the effort put forth by this year's civil grand

jury and the report they issued recording sustaining the convention center. i would like to thank each of you for this report for the circumstances facing us today. in general, we agree with the report recommendations and fully recognize the importance of our convention and sister industry in san francisco. there are many factors that are considered. the convention center is one. proximity to hotels, restaurants, retail, attraction and other venues are very important in the competitive industry. attendee's safety and cleanliness are key factors. we work hard on forging partnerships of businesses that recognize and understand the value of bringing conventions to san francisco. together we have the ability to manage costs so we remain

competitive with first year cities across the country. visitor spending equates to future business to support the economy. we may support the recommendations, we recognize it will be challenging to implement due to the city's current budget crisis. i will open this moment up for lisa to comment further. thank you, supervisors. >> good afternoon. chair mar and thank you committee members and civil grand jury for your thoughtful report and consideration of the recommendations which are extremely important. i am here to answer questions on recommendation number one related to the tourist improvement district. i can speak to that now or wait until the board members,

committee members have questions. >> thank you. if you can, just speak to that right now it would be helpful. >> absolutely. recommendation number one, and i understand the comments from mr. mills related to the intention of the recommendation number one was to ask the city to advocate for renewal of the tourism district. the way it was worded was problematic because as we stated in the response, the city cannot unilaterally impose assessment district on hotels who are currently paying for the assessments for tourism improvement district. there is a process that the constituents have to agree on

management plan, assessment rates, scope of services and they send out that plan. the city does review the plan. our office provides the technical assistance. we are currently working with the san francisco tourism improvement district board to create the timeline for the renewal and as assist them with the legal review and technical review the city does of these plans. we are actively working with them currently on the renewal, to be honest. we cannot make the choice as city or board of supervisors to renew a district until the hotels who are assessed vote on the petition and if they receive 30% support they can move forward if the board passes a resolution of intent for a special election on a ballot for

renewal of the district. it is not under the city control until those people weigh in on the election process. we praised the response. we are currently oewd working with the san francisco tourism improvement district to think through the timeline and process. >> thanks for that explanation. thank you for your brief summary of the city department's responses. colleagues, do you have questions or remarks before public comment? >> supervisor peskin? [indiscernable] >> i would like to actually

concur with some of the recommendations and findings in whole or in part. as stated, part company with all due respect with the civil grand jury's recommendations and would concur with what the mayor set forth that is before us today. let me be clear. the visitor and convention function in san francisco is remarkably important to our economy. i am the author, original author of the tid. i was around and voted on all of the condemnations for mosconi west. yes, we have challenges and we have to stay competitive. i think this is a report well received relative to the recommendations and charter

authority vested in the mayor and board of supervisors. i will get to those. i certainly intend to be a member of this board of supervisors when the tid comes up for renewal. having said that we cannot pre-agree to that. i do note mr. mills said the word renew misconstrued. it is a democratic process that is weighted towards certain types of property owners in the way the organic documents give the votes or the voting power. we can't pre-agree to that. nonetheless, i want to say that i fully intend to work with the tid and the community and the pay ors to renew that district at the same or higher level when it comes due in 2023.

i will get to the other recommendations and why i concur with the mayor and part company with the grand jury, civil grand jury on those recommendations. why don't we open up for public comment. >> thank you, supervisor peskin. supervisor haney, did you have questions or remarks? >> yes, thank you to the civil grand jury for their work on this and the departments here. thank you for taking your leadership on behalf of the board on the responses and next steps. i have two questions. it sounds like the san francisco police department is here whether we can have a response to them related to recommendation number three about how the current approach works in terms of maintaining

security and safety at the mosconi center and the general sense of if we are not able to do this particular dedicated police officers how we ensure public safety in and around the musc oni center. >> good morning. commander walsh from the san francisco police department. chairman mar, supervisors, grand jury, thank you for your time. specifically to recommendation 3 as some of the supervisors, as i am sure you are aware. if you have an event within your police district that district is responsible for those events. musc oni center is in the san francisco southern police

district. those officers would be deployed from southern police station. we would allelui would allocate. if you had west portal we might have to shift over to that event. southern police district would be doing that in these events. with this just due to the recent budget cuts and with staffing now. three of the upcoming classes are out. sfpd will not have staffing to additional on duty officers. that is the purpose of the 10b program. a lot of conventioners and and mosconi knows that.

they can pay for the additional service so we are not drawing the officers out from current duties. that would be officers not working at that time. that is the way that resource would have to be done. if you look at the recommendation, it is based on the numbers. if you look at three officers for 10,000 depending on the size and length of the convention. i know in the past oracle did provide that type of process where they hired the officers in those areas. it would be large to use beat officers on foot to make everybody feel safe and protect the area. the crowd sizes would be a huge drain on resources for southern

station. >> within the tourism improve meant district, and i am sure supervisor peskin knows the answer as well. would hiring the officers be something the tourism improvement district could do? is that something they do currently or would that be something they could perhaps consider? >> lisa with the office of workforce development. yes, officers could be an eligible funding source for

tourism improvement district in the future. it is not part of the current management plan services, but they can consider including that in renewal plan. >> this is a question for the civil grand jury. on recommendation number 4, establishment of task force. could you speak a bit more about why you feel that this sort of task force model is needed as opposed to sort of the current mechanism for collaboration? is there a particular type of similar governance structure that you are modeling this on? i don't no if we have any similar models you are trying to replicate here or you think we

should replicate. >> two comments. one, despite the good efforts, collaboration, as i remarked earlier, something more is needed. hopefully, a focused task force could come up with what is the strategy that could be a better strategy than what is in place today. my second comment is let me air a little dirty laundry. this particular recommendation actually started out differently. it started out as something along the lines of, look, we have laws on the books today. ordinances and so forth whereby we could take what someone calls a heavy-handed approach and cleanup the streets. the idea is not to criminalize homelessness or inappropriately

jail people. far from it. but there are laws on the books that could go at solving some of these problems. the civil garaged jury we had some -- helpful we had a strong discussion and there is political concerns, concerns for citizens at the same time but also concerns for visitors. we thought that would be an nonstarter for a conversation to take that more heavy-handed approach. rather we thought there needs to be another approach. we thought that this goes beyond our expertise and does require bringing the parties together. if we don't do this approach and that first one heavy-handed

approach, the current approach is not working. what is it. we put that hot potato in the hands of the city with the task force. >> a comment on the police department's response. i am the director of policy and public affairs for the san francisco police department. i just want to address that we obviously reported that we would not be able t to implement thate have moved forward to looking at different approaches when it comes to nonviolent incidents. really at the end of the day community gatherings in san francisco. we felt with the spirit of what has gone on we as the san francisco police department will

continue with our law enforcement duties. we have been very clear the direction and climate we are in now not only politically but the outcry was felt it was important to underscore that. we have task forces. i knew a behavioral health model in san francisco. we would like to recommend there are existing practices, groups, task forces, collaborations going on and it may be best to turn to those approaches. as commander walsh recommended, there are other ways to look at officers to be on duty. we want to be very careful to go against what our directives have be. it is sensitive for the police department at this time, as you can imagine.

>> thank you. i am looking forward to hearing from supervisor peskin about our responses as well. thank you for your work and thank you, supervisor peskin, for taking the lead on behalf of the board on this one. >> i want to thank commander walsh and lisa for your responses. any other remarks before public comment? >> i will reserve remarks for after public comment. >> are there callers on the line for public comment? >> we are checking to see if there are callers for these agenda items 3 and 4.

for those watching on channel 26 or through sfgovtv if you wish to speak on this item call in now by following instructions on your screen by dialing 415-655-0001. meeting id for today is (146)215-7375. press pound twice and star followed by 3 to enter the queue to speak. could you please connect us to the first caller. >> good morning, supervisors.

thank you for your time today to address this important issue of the grand jury findings. i am joe and desmond business agent for the stage employees local 16. our work force is approximately 2000 people. the wages earned at mosconi center account for 50% of wages and benefits earned by stagehands. the success is essential in providing a liveable wage for those in san francisco. the center in san francisco has experienced a long and successful ron in providing excellent convention experiences to attendees and tourists alike. however, we are in jeopardy of losing this revenue due to costs and conditions. as for conditions. additional police protection is

essential for not only the safety of conventioners but the stagehandses as well. the crews work late at night at odd hours. their safety needs to be considered. as for discounting the rental of the facility. this is critical as well. the bottom line is if we don't make ourself competitive in the convention market this large and wonderful building will remain dark. i understand and respect the need to look at the city budget in total due to covid. we must not let our most important and lucrative facility go domant. >> thank you. next caller, please. >> good morning, supervisors. i appreciate the opportunity to speak before you today. i am terry lewis.

general manager for hilton union square and park 55. these hotels served san francisco for decades. i am here to express support for findings and recommendations in the report before you which illustrate concerns and related improvement opportunities based on visitor, employees, meeting planner and convention client and stakeholder sentiments. it was thorough and fair and provides vital recommendations to be implemented immediately for economic recovery. i would like to call your attention to a few of the critical recommendations. supplementing the current mosconi assessments with an additional general fund allocation of at least $2.5 million to provide rental discounts to convention center clients. after july 1, 2021 at least

three additional uniformed beat patrol officers per 10,000 expected event attendees dedicated to patrolling the areas around the center during the busy convention hours. the industry supports establishing a stakeholder task force for street management and tid rhinology. tourism is hit hard. these are the steps in a positive direction toward recovery. this would improve the san francisco ability to keep existing convention business and attract new business in a competitive market during critical rebuilding times. it would benefit ancillary businesses. please support san francisco's number one economy to ensure we are competitive with other

destinations. >> thank you for sharing your comments. next caller, please. >> good morning, chair mar, vice chair peskin, member haney. i am the coo at the california academy of signs and verying on tida. thanks to the civil grand jury for their work in this matter. i will be brief. during undergraduate i was a banquet waitter. i was one of your servers. 12 plated dinners wearing the polyester tux. it helped put me through college. when i see the waiters i am reminded how important the jobs are to survive. tourism is the number one industry in terms of revenue and

hardest hit. especially i appreciate the committee as it focuses on what will be a post-covid recovery area. i support the findings of the report as it pertains to supplement for the expansion distribute and tid renewal. thank you, supervisor peskin for helping establish that. these jobs wait staff and convention employees are all key to economic recovery. the is sense of pursuit in some form san francisco will struggle to attract new business in a competitive market. i will agree with the head of the grand jury that said that other cities are taking advantage of criticizing san

francisco and the things they think we are not doing well. it is throwing us under the bus to get the convention business we are losing. we ask for your support and help us to be competitive as we emerge from this. thank you very much. >> next caller, please. >> good morning. i pam john sanderson, john anderson of jw marriott. tourism has adapted to challenges of the city. along with my colleagues there are three main pillars that holed us up in san francisco. first, the people who work in the buildings and welcome the visitors to san francisco. this population are dedicated professional